


He Will Be Loved (Dan x Will)

by Fanofthebastillelife



Category: Bastille (Band), Will x Dan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanofthebastillelife/pseuds/Fanofthebastillelife
Summary: Will is hurt. Dan helps.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warning for child abuse

Rain taps lightly against Dan's bedroom window, making slight melodies which will be forgotten as soon as the next flurry comes. Dan lies in a deep slumber, his head resting against his arm, and masses of black hair pointing everywhere.

His parents are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so they are out of town for a few days. They've left Dan to care for his younger brother and sister. His brother is sleeping in the room next door to Dans, and his sister is sleeping at her friend's house for the night- he'd dropped her off earlier.

Three loud knocks on the front door wakes the boy in a startled mess, causing him to sit straight up and blink into the darkness, his mind foggy as it attempts to clear itself up. A quick glance at the clock tells him it's nearly three thirty, which only provokes his anxiety more.

The hammering beats repeat on the door once again, making Dan jump once more. Whoever is at the door is either:

  1. Someone who is really drunk
  2. Someone trying to kidnap/burgle/kill Dan and/or his family
  3. Someone who really, really needs help.



Dan slips out of his bed, grabbing his hoodie and glasses and slipping them on so he can see, and to protect himself from the cold October air that bites at his skin, and hurries out of his room and downstairs before the knocking wakes his brother like it had done himself- it had taken Dan far too long to put him to bed as it was.

His hand rests on the cold door handle, sending chills up his back and making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.  _Do I let them in?_ Dan asks himself,  _this is how every horror movie starts- what if they're going to hurt us-_

"Dan. It's Will.  _Please_ let me in..." His boyfriend's familiar voice calls through the plastic of the door. A thousand scenarios rush through Dan's head in worry, his heart pounding even more so. In a hurry, he unlocks and opens the door.

Will's hair is stuck to his head when Dan pulls open the door. Rain drips from his shorts and his t-shirt. He hangs his head slightly, not allowing Dan to see his face. He can barely see him at all in the dark, so he grabs him, and pulls him into the house and out of the cold. 

"What're you doing?! It's three thirty, and pouring with rain! You could have gotten ill!" Dan scolds him, before noticing the cold, chattering sobs that escape him. "Will?" 

"I'm sorry, Dan. I- I know it's late, b-but my d-d-dad..." He stutters, hugging his arms tighter around himself. Dan quickly shuts and locks the door, before telling him to wait there whilst he fetches a blanket.

Dan is far too aware of Will's Dad's violent temper- but this was new. He'd never seen Will like this before...

"What's happening?" Dan's sleepy brother mutters as he emerges from his bedroom, teddy bear in one hand whilst the other rubs his eyes. "Are Mum and Dad home?" 

"No, they're not. Just go back to bed." Dan commands him, running from his bedroom door to the top of the stairs with a big blanket bundled up in his arms, and a fresh, warm towel from the boiler cupboard.

"But-"

"Go to bed  _now,_ or I'm telling Mum!" Dan yells at him again, stopping for a second on the stairs to make sure he follows Captain's orders. He glares at Dan, before disappearing back into his bedroom and allowing his older brother to continue downstairs. He wraps the blanket around Will, and grabs his hand, pulling him into the kitchen, towel in his other hand.

The light is bright, and when it comes on, it shocks both Dan and Will, making them cover their eyes. When Dan finally opens them, blinking to adjust them, his jaw drops, his heart panging.

Will's fair skin is blotched in black and purple bruises, blood running from his broken and nose and bust lip, a black eye blinking innocently at him. There's a gash on his arm, and one on his leg, both of which are bleeding.

"Will... What..." Dan begins to mumble, the towel dropping out of his hands as he walks over, and assess the damage done to his boyfriend. He softly places his hand on the side of his face, lightly touching the bruised area. He flinches under Dan's gentle touches. His voice is nothing but a whisper as he stares into Will's eyes, the ones he fell in love with just two years ago, when they were thirteen. They're clouded with pain, vulnerability... His hands shake, and Dan doesn't know if it's from fear or from the cold. "What happened?" 

"My-My dad lost h-his temper a-at me," he tells Dan weakly, watching him with hurt eyes as he grabs a bag of frozen peas out of the freezer and places them over his bruised face. He flinches again. It sounds like Will's choking on his own words, struggling to even make them make sense.

"Why?" 

Will sighs, speaking quickly, though his words are laced with pain, and they stumble out of his mouth like they're tripping over each other. "They got in another argument- Mum and Dad. I don't know what it was about, but they were screaming at each other as loud as they could... And... And he h-hit her..." Tears stream down his bruised face, cracked sobs interrupting his words which struggle to make sense of themselves. "He hit her, so-so I tr-tried to stop him, cuz  _'that's what a man does',_ and my dad is always saying how I need to grow up... And he hit me, and he- he didn't stop-" His voice cracks and breaks under the pressure of another violent sob that wrecks through him. "Mum left us." 

Dan stands for a second on the sidelines, not knowing what he could possibly do. To say Will normally presents himself as such a relaxed, calm individual that lives and lets live, it's a lot to take in. No one knows what is happening behind closed doors, even the victim's boyfriend.

"Has he- hs he hit you before?" Dan feels like he's dipping his toe in to test the water as he asks the question. He gently picks the towel up and starts drying Will's arms. The hurt boy looks up to Dan, and sheepishly nods. He bites his lip, guilt, anger, and just...  _Emptiness_ consuming him... "Didn't you say anything?" 

"Like what?" Will snaps, frowning at his boyfriend and wincing slightly in pain. "What can you say to your abusive, drunkard father when he's got a bloody glass bottle in his hand, Dan?" He almost shouts, but Dan doesn't mind. After all of this, Will deserves at  _least_ to let it all out. After a few moments, his face softens. "Dan- I'm so sorry, I just-" 

Dan says nothing, wrapping his arms around Will, careful to avoid any bruised areas that lie on his skin, and reassures him that it's okay, and it will be okay. He plants a kiss on the other boys cheek. "Your mum just left?" 

"She promised me, when Dad first started drinking, that one day we'd leave, an-and I thought that if she left, she'd take us with her. Me and my sister, you know? But she picked up my sister, and just... She just left. Left me alone with  _him..."_ He sniffles, his body shaking under Dan's touch. "She just left me and didn't even try to help..."

Betrayal lays in Will's words, and Dan feels a pang of anger, guilt,  ~~pity~~ hit him in the stomach. Questions float around his head,  _how could a mother do that to her own son?_ Dan hugs his boyfriend together, letting him cry himself out on his shoulder.

Usually, the scene would play out the opposite: Dan crying on his boyfriend's shoulder about something petty- things people had said at school, or a particular thing his grandma had said, and his uncle had done which meant he would never see them again, just because he's gay, and Will would always get worked up with anger as he rubbed Dan's back, threatening that if they say another word that he'll say something. He just never knew how vulnerable the protector is...

But Will is hurt. He's abandoned, lonely, and left to face the lions all by himself, and right now, he needs someone to support him, now more than ever.

So that's what Dan is going to do.


	2. Comfort

"When was the first time he hit you?" Will's hands are so soft, a great comparison to the brittle situation that Dan has found himself in. He plays with Will's fingers, watching his boyfriend as he cradles his face with the other hand. The black and blue puddles of colour stand out in his dull, pale skin. A steaming cup of tea sits in front of him, which Dan made in hope of making him feel better, but it doesn't seem to have worked. He still looks sorry for himself- but then, he has every right.

Dan managed to clean and bandage Will's gashes as much as he could without having to give him stitches. He'd also dried Will off and gave him spare, dry clothes that were slightly too short for him. 

Will seems hesitant to answer, which Dan understands since  it's such a personal subject; but everything is out there, now, in the open. Questions will be asked. "I don't know..." He sighs, closing his tired, emotionless eyes. "Forever ago. But it's- it's never been  _this_ bad. He's never done  _that."_

Dan frowns, praying to  _God_ he won't hit a nerve. "What do you mean?"

"He... He used to call me and stuff, you know, tell me I'm stupid and worthless, and he used to use things like, I don't know, a belt, or something. It hurt like a  _bitch,_ but never drew blood." He winces at the memory, his hands trailing up his arms as he looks at Dan hopelessly. "Then he'd, like, smack me and stuff around the head, then one day- that time I was off for a few days last year- he punched me and gave me a black eye... God, what did I do?" Will's eyes are full of tears, which he wipes away with the back of his hand. "God I'm path-"

"I get it," Dan interrupts the boy, heart panging with  _pity,_ "He hurt you, Will. You're going to be upset, you're going to have the worse possible thoughts..." He maintains eye contact with his boyfriend, slipping his fingers between the other boys so they are entwined. "You're weak, you're beaten down, and you have every right to feel this way because you don't deserve  _any of it."_ Will finally breaks eye contact, looking down to the hot drink. "What did your mum say?"

"She promised we'd go one day- she promised  _we'd all be safe."_ His voice is weak and hurt, straining as he speaks. "She promised me, and then left me. With him." Tears fall down Will's blotched face, but Dan carries on. The more he finds out, the more he can help. But he feels  _terrible_ for not noticing anything. He feels  _shitty._

"What sort of things did he say to you?" 

"He said I should feel lucky to have a dad like him." Will swallows a lump in his throat. "He said that if I didn't have him- if  _we_ didn't have him- we'd all be in a gutter somewhere. But any money he made went straight on beer all the time. He never cared about us," Dan frowns, this didn't sound like the family Will had told him about, but those first few seconds that he saw him told him that. "He called us ungrateful if any of us spoke back to him. Said we deserved it all- Suppose, really, that he was right."

"No, Will. You didn't deserve any of it." 

"No- you don't get it." Will shakes his head, clearly hiding more secrets. With a sigh, he decides to spill them all out. "This is nothing to what he could be like, sometimes. He can be so much worse. And this whole thing about me, about me at school, it's a mask. I don't know who it is, but it isn't me." He takes another deep breath as Dan moves to sit next to him. He lets Will bury his head in his neck as he speaks. "I pretend to be happy so that you guys are happy- so  _you're_ happy. I pretend to be happy so nobody asks questions. I pretend to be happy so I don't get picked on. I pretend to have this amazing, loving family because it's all I want. I don't want to live under the constant fear of being hit by my dad. Hell, I don't want to be hit. I can't take you out on dates because I can never afford it. I work my arse off all night so I can give Mum some money for food. I saved up so, so much, so much that we could run away, and live somewhere else, and be this happy family like yours, and then... Then she took off, and she took it all."

Dan frowns, which he feels like he's doing a lot of tonight. He never knew any of this- his boyfriend normally did palm their group of friends off with an excuse as to why he couldn't go out after school or at the weekend, and now he knows why. His heart pounds with sympathy, but that's not what he wants. He wants- he  _needs-_ help, and at the minute, he trusts Dan to give it to him."

"What's your dad doing now?" 

"I don't know, but he's going to be pissed." Will's eyes are closing again in exhaustion. Dan should probably let the boy sleep for a while. "I left whilst I could- and- and... God, Dan, he's going to kill me. I'm going to be his victim..." His body language is so careless, guilt weighing down on his shoulders. He looks up to Dan again, grey eyes shining red with tears. "I'm a goner..."

"Don't say that, Will. He won't hurt you again. You can stay here." Dan says, helping him stand up. "Come on, let's go to bed."

"No- Dan, I've probably already annoyed you. I'll go-"

"I'm not letting you go back there. Now, shut up. You're my  _boyfriend._ You need help, and I'm going to help you. You can stay here for as long as you need." Dan whispers, walking with him upstairs. His movements are quite docile, his bones aching and body sore. The black haired boy makes a note to take Will to the hospital tomorrow to get his cuts stitched up.

"Thank you so much, Dan," Will is reduced to a child, so innocent. "I don't deserve you, Danny, you're too good for me. I love you." 

"You deserve the world, Will. I love you, too." Dan says, pushing open the door to his bedroom. "Now sleep. You're exhausted.


End file.
